Our History
How We Got Our Start
To speak about how Teen STAR got started is to speak about the story of persons because all stories begin with a person that decides to change the world, beginning within their own surroundings, their own communities. So, if we go to the beginning, we must speak about Dr. Hanna Klaus.
Sr. Hanna Klaus was born in Vienna and was raised in the midst of the tragedy of World War II. Together with her family, as a child she suffered the horror of the Nazi occupation and the loss of many of her family members. She emigrated to England and discovered that the Messiah, so longed for during the Seder in Vienna, had indeed come, in the Christian behavior of the family that welcomed her. Her parents had managed to leave Austria in March 1940 and she was able to join them that year in the US. During post graduate medical studies the need to discover the first cause led into the Catholic Church and a specialization in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1957 she entered the Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) and was missioned to Pakistan, where she practiced for seven years. Returning to the US in 1968 because her mother had become blind, she also joined university faculties in St. Louis. In 1973 the Roe-Wade decision of the U.S. The Supreme Court removed all protections from unborn babies. The group of very young mothers aged 13-15 for whom she cared made the need to help teens understand and value their sexuality and fertility obvious.
As she had already begun to teach the Billings Ovulation Method, the invitation of Dr. John Billings to “look at the teens” concretized the next step, to develop and test an approach to teach fertility awareness to teens. With Sister Ursula Fagan, MMS, MSW and Mary Lou Bryant-Reed, an educator, the first curriculum based on experiential learning of the fertility marker and exploration of possessing it on emotions, behavior and relationships was initiated and tested. When the program was found to undergird maintaining or returning to chastity, the girls’ mothers asked for a parallel program for their sons. Rev. Don Heet, O.S.F.S. ,Ed.D. also used self discovery to construct the male curriculum. In time curricula for early, middle and late adolescent boys and girls became available.
How We Became Worldwide
As the program expanded to the UK, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Chile and Croatia inculturation required many modifications without losing the essentials of experiential learning, self discovery, parental involvement and monitoring of behavioral outcomes. There are too many people to name. Suffice it to say that the longest standing program in the US continues to be directed by Liz Heyne, P.A.,Psy.D., who has conducted classes in middle school, university and in crisis pregnancy centers for over 30 years. Mary Lou Bryant-Reid has continued to host programs for middle school students in Louisville, Kentucky, and until her recent retirement, Dorothy Dugandzic also had continued to teach Teen STAR to middle school students in New York. In Chile Dr. Pilar Vigil, M.D., Ph.D. has expanded the program not only in Chile but in several neighboring countries, and Spain. Helga Sebernik and Elisabeth Pesahl have added a “kids program for younger children used in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, France has hosted several francophone programs in Africa. Most programs are purely volunteer, but Ethiopia and Uganda initial expansions were supported by USAID. Programs in Korea, Macao and other sites.
In the 1990s, Dr. Pilar Vigil entered the scene. She too is a very important person for Teen STAR™.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Dr. Vigil is a wife and mother of four children, a licensed Physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and is also involved in many scientific research projects within the field of fertility.
Dr. Vigil has worked with Teen STAR™ since 1993 and is currently the International Director of the Teen STAR™ Program.
Our Current Leadership
In 2018, Deacon Santiago Molina (M.S. Biological Sciences) an associate professor of Anatomy & Physiology at Tallahassee Community College took over as interim Executive Director of Teen STAR USA, being formally named Executive Director in November of 2019.
To speak about how Teen STAR got started is to speak about the story of persons because all stories begin with a person that decides to change the world, beginning within their own surroundings, their own communities. So, if we go to the beginning, we must speak about Dr. Hanna Klaus.
Sr. Hanna Klaus was born in Vienna and was raised in the midst of the tragedy of World War II. Together with her family, as a child she suffered the horror of the Nazi occupation and the loss of many of her family members. She emigrated to England and discovered that the Messiah, so longed for during the Seder in Vienna, had indeed come, in the Christian behavior of the family that welcomed her. Her parents had managed to leave Austria in March 1940 and she was able to join them that year in the US. During post graduate medical studies the need to discover the first cause led into the Catholic Church and a specialization in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1957 she entered the Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) and was missioned to Pakistan, where she practiced for seven years. Returning to the US in 1968 because her mother had become blind, she also joined university faculties in St. Louis. In 1973 the Roe-Wade decision of the U.S. The Supreme Court removed all protections from unborn babies. The group of very young mothers aged 13-15 for whom she cared made the need to help teens understand and value their sexuality and fertility obvious.
As she had already begun to teach the Billings Ovulation Method, the invitation of Dr. John Billings to “look at the teens” concretized the next step, to develop and test an approach to teach fertility awareness to teens. With Sister Ursula Fagan, MMS, MSW and Mary Lou Bryant-Reed, an educator, the first curriculum based on experiential learning of the fertility marker and exploration of possessing it on emotions, behavior and relationships was initiated and tested. When the program was found to undergird maintaining or returning to chastity, the girls’ mothers asked for a parallel program for their sons. Rev. Don Heet, O.S.F.S. ,Ed.D. also used self discovery to construct the male curriculum. In time curricula for early, middle and late adolescent boys and girls became available.
How We Became Worldwide
As the program expanded to the UK, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Chile and Croatia inculturation required many modifications without losing the essentials of experiential learning, self discovery, parental involvement and monitoring of behavioral outcomes. There are too many people to name. Suffice it to say that the longest standing program in the US continues to be directed by Liz Heyne, P.A.,Psy.D., who has conducted classes in middle school, university and in crisis pregnancy centers for over 30 years. Mary Lou Bryant-Reid has continued to host programs for middle school students in Louisville, Kentucky, and until her recent retirement, Dorothy Dugandzic also had continued to teach Teen STAR to middle school students in New York. In Chile Dr. Pilar Vigil, M.D., Ph.D. has expanded the program not only in Chile but in several neighboring countries, and Spain. Helga Sebernik and Elisabeth Pesahl have added a “kids program for younger children used in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, France has hosted several francophone programs in Africa. Most programs are purely volunteer, but Ethiopia and Uganda initial expansions were supported by USAID. Programs in Korea, Macao and other sites.
In the 1990s, Dr. Pilar Vigil entered the scene. She too is a very important person for Teen STAR™.
Born in Santiago, Chile, Dr. Vigil is a wife and mother of four children, a licensed Physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and is also involved in many scientific research projects within the field of fertility.
Dr. Vigil has worked with Teen STAR™ since 1993 and is currently the International Director of the Teen STAR™ Program.
Our Current Leadership
In 2018, Deacon Santiago Molina (M.S. Biological Sciences) an associate professor of Anatomy & Physiology at Tallahassee Community College took over as interim Executive Director of Teen STAR USA, being formally named Executive Director in November of 2019.
Our Team
Sr. Hanna Klaus, M.D. MMS
Founder, Teen STAR™ |
Dr. Pilar Vigil
President, Teen STAR™ International |
Dcn. Santiago Molina
Executive Director, Teen STAR™ USA |
Our Board Members
Stephen Wallace
President After an active legal practice with Drinker, Biddle & Reath in Washington, D.C. Stephen became the Executive director of the Gabriel Network in September of 2014. He is a proud alumus of Notre Dame Law School and Franciscan University of Steubenville. Stephen joined the National Maternity Housing Coalition’s Leadership Council in 2017, and was elected President of the Council in 2018. Stephen lives with his wife Meta and their four children in Laurel, Maryland, and are members of St. Mary of the Mills parish. After serving as Vice-President, he was elected president of the Board in December of 2020. Stephen has served on the Board since 2015.
Mary Lou Bryant-Reid
Dr. Andrew P. Cannon
Dr. Andrew D. Cannon, Ph.D., retired from a career in Information Technology. In his retirement he earning a doctorate in theology and published his dissertation as Mere Marriage: Sexual Difference and Christian Doctrine (See: www.MereMarriage.com). Dr. Cannon has served on the TeenSTAR board for a dozen years. He and his wife Mary Ellen have five children and ten grandchildren. They live in McLean Virginia. Dr. Cannon has served on the Teen STAR board since 2009, including as its President through December of 2020.
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Sally Ivers
Secretary 
Monsignor Edward Filardi
Msgr. Edward Filardi is the oldest of five children to Joan and Ed Filardi. Raised in Columbia Maryland, he graduated from LaSalle University in Philadelphia in 1987 with a degree in Economics. He worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in DC before entering Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD in 1990. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington DC in 1994. After over a decade at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda, Msgr. Filardi was named Pastor of St. Paul Catholic Church in Damascus, MD He has been on the Teen STAR board since 2009.
Lorraine Leonard
Lorraine Leonard is a retired USAF Weather Officer. When stationed at Andrews AFB in Maryland, her husband Don and she discovered Teen STAR and got the USAF Catholic Chaplain’s support to include Teen STAR in the youth group, CCD and Sacrament of
Confirmation prep programs over a ten year period. Lorraine has a BS in Meteorology from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, and an MS in Systems Management from the University of Denver. Her husband, Don, a big believer in the Billings Method of NFP and the Teen STAR program, died in 2019. Lorraine lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and her son, Thomas, just moved to North Dakota as a 2Lt in the USAF. She has been on the Teen STAR board since 2013. |
Molly Daley
Vice-President & Treasurer Molly Daley is a Teen STAR instructor and Instructor Trainer, client advocate at Pregnancy Center North, FACTS speaker, and author of 8 Ways Fertility Charting Will Change Your Life. She founded Body Language Life as a platform for speaking and writing about Fertility Awareness, Natural Family Planning, and the Theology of the Body to diverse audiences. Molly holds a bachelor's degree in Religious Studies and Arabic from The College of William and Mary and a Juris Doctor from The University of Maryland School of Law. She is in the certification program of the Theology of the Body Institute. Molly lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter. Molly has served on the Teen STAR board since 2017. Kathleen McGee
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